


My Heart, Fissioned

by sillyvizion



Category: Disney's Toontown Online (Video Game), Toontown Rewritten - Fandom
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Grief, Hurt/Comfort, Mention/talking about how Fissionton is mcdead, post-silly meter, purrview hugs surlee thats all u need
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-10-10 15:50:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20530574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sillyvizion/pseuds/sillyvizion
Summary: After Doctor Surlee runs away from Toon Hall during the Silly Meter's first maxing, Professor Purrview can't help but worry for him. When he shows up several weeks later, she decides to intervene.





	My Heart, Fissioned

**Author's Note:**

> its been absolutely forever since i wrote TT fic. this was started back in april, right after the meter maxing event, but i never got to finish it until now!!!!
> 
> this fic plays on the fact that Purrview seemed pretty close to Fissionton, showing in [multiple](https://cdn.toontownrewritten.com/news-site/loonylabs/03%20-%20The%20S.I.L.L.I.%20Team.txt) [of](https://cdn.toontownrewritten.com/news-site/loonylabs/04%20-%20Categorizing%20Continues.txt) [reports](https://cdn.toontownrewritten.com/news-site/loonylabs/05%20-%20Final%20Report.txt) from C.A.K.E.  
i do fumble with the timeline a bit here, technically this Purrview shouldn't remember anything from the TTO timeline of Fissionton's reaction to Surlee but i dont CARE
> 
> anyway! enjoy!! you can find me on [Twitter](http://twitter.com/sillyvizion) if you're so inclined or in the TTR Discord (as V)

No, no, no.

This couldn't be happening.

It just couldn't be. There was no way.

But as Doctor Surlee stared up at the sky flushed with the colour of lavender, hundreds of Silly Particles flying past his peripheral vision in a blur, all he could think about was regret. Regret, regret, regret... it was all he ever thought about recently, but after the scene that had unfolded before him, he knew it was going to consume all of his waking thoughts, and then some.

The asphalt dug into his knees as he watched the little pieces of shrapnel fly past, which he could see move in slow motion, as if time itself had given out it's last hurrah before grinding to a halt. Tie blowing in the wind, his lab coat slipping off of his shoulders and landing on his calves in a heap. If one looked at him from the front, you could easily see the glistening of tears streaming down his cheeks, but he surely wouldn't have noticed it himself.

Today, Doctor Surlee and Gyro Gearloose were synonymous.

✦ ✦ ✦

"The Phunny Phluid levels are sitting at stable, Professor."

"Great work, Fumbdound. But we'll need to keep an eye on it just befur the meter reaches its peak."

"This would be far easier if Doctor Surlee and Doctor Fissionton were here..."

Purrview looked up from her clipboard. "Doctor Surlee is on extended leave while he takes care of a few things."

"And Doctor Fissionton...?" Fumbdound's brow creased with concern. 

Purrview blinked once, then twice. None of the other Scientoons had been brave enough to mention Fissionton for the past couple of weeks. All of them had an idea of what had happened, a hunch that hung over them like a stormcloud, but nobody could muster the words to talk about them. She looked back down at her notes, her eyes wandering over the comments they had written all over her pages - blue for the dog, red for the cat. There were some parts they scribbled out each other's observations to write their own, and others where they seemingly argued with one another via prose... the two of them weren't a far cry from how she remembered her team lead.

He was an amazing Scientoon; hard-working, persistent.... but he had a habit for double-guessing himself. At times he really did seem like two people in one body, and once Purrview had met the two of them, it felt even more apparent. She often wondered if being split into two was his fate, after all. Or perhaps it was how he was always meant to be? It's hard to say, when you're dealing with the unknown. Maybe out there, there is a universe where the two of them were each other, and were... stable.

"Professor Purrview?"

She jolted out of her thoughts, throwing her head up to see who had called her name. It was, of course, Fumbdound, who had an even more troubled expression on his face.

"My apawlogies, Fumbdound. I was just thinking."

Before she could say anything more, her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a handle turning. Both of them turned their attention to the front door of the Toon Hall, and were surprised to say the least.

"Doctor Surlee!" they both said in unison, dropping their clipboards and rushing over to greet him. He looked disheveled, to say the least, as though he had been up for the past several weeks. But despite that, a weak smile was spread across his face, as jarring as that was to witness.

"It's nice to see you all," he spoke up, voice a little hoarse, "I trust you've been able to handle the Silly Meter well?"

"It'll be far easier with you here, sir," Fumbdound replied, a little hesitant.

"Well," Surlee straightened up, shook the small quiff of hair out his eyes and clapped his hands together, "there's no time like the present, now is there?" And without so much as a mention of where he'd been, he walked past the two Scientoons towards the Silly Meter.

Purrview watched his tail as it trailed behind him, hanging low. She wanted desperately to ask if he was alright, but decided against it, for now. Wringing her hands together, she resumed her work.

✦ ✦ ✦

An hour or so had passed since Surlee returned to the Toon Hall, and things were already progressing quicker than usual. Purrview was flipping through her countless notes, looking for those darned bar codes, before an unfocused blur of orange in her vision caught her eye. She looked up, and saw Surlee standing close to the Silly Meter, having stepped over its railings. 

She put down her clipboard - one of many - and stepped a little closer to Surlee. Coming round his shoulder, she could see how he had a hand outstretched, ghosting lightly over the brushed metal of one of the Silly Meter’s many doohickeys. An indescribable expression was painted on his face, and Purrview felt the urge to say something.

“You outdid yourself with the Silly Mew-ter, Doctor,” she hedged, immediately prompting Surlee to startle and turn to look at her, pulling back his hand. Purrview bit her lower lip in hesitation, but continued. “You and Doctor Fissionton, of course.”

Surlee’s eyes flicked between her and the Meter, before he sighed and dropped his shoulders Purrview hadn’t noticed were tensed up. “Was it even worth it, now that Fissionton is…” he inhaled sharply, obviously unable to bring himself to say it.

“Absolutely,” Purrview put her hand on Surlee’s shoulder, trying to offer reassurance. Surlee looked back to her, uncomfortable, but not pulling away. “I worked with Doctor Fissionton fur a long time, you know. He idolized you… well, not YOU you, but Gyro. He idolized Doctor Gearloose more than he cared to admit.” She laughed a little, remembering all the nights Fissionton would ramble on to her and the others for hours and hours on end about Gyro’s countless inventions. Seeing the corner of Surlee’s mouth twitch a little, she continued.

“All he e-fur wanted, more than anything, was to work alongside Doctor Gearloose, you know,” she started laughing again, remembering something particularly amusing. “Oh, when you showed up at Loony Labs, he couldn’t stop talking about you! Doctor Surlee this, Doctor Surlee that,” she waved her hand around for emphasis, placing it back down on Surlee’s other shoulder, “maybe he knew deep down you were his idol.”

Surlee looked at her, a bit stunned, as his cheeks flushed the slightest shade of red. “I-Is that so…” he hung his head again, letting out a long exhale. “I’m sorry, Professor. I’ve been so caught up in my own head that I… forget other people knew him better than I.” Purrview opened her mouth to speak, but Surlee gave her a look, and she let him finish. “I really didn’t know him that well, to be honest. I wish I did, I regret that I didn’t, but…” he exhaled once more, seemingly holding his breath as he spoke. “I’m really grieving over myself… what I’ve caused.”

Purrview frowned, rubbing his shoulders in a desperate bid to keep him from bolting out Toon Hall again. It hurt to see a wonderful Toon such as him doubting himself so much. Did he understand how much they looked up to him, she wondered. Clearly she had spent too much time in her own thoughts, as she could feel Surlee tensing up again. 

“It’s okay to grieve,” she blurted out, a bit stupidly. Clearing her throat, she tried again. “It’s okay to grieve, but I know fur a fact that Doctor Fissionton wouldn’t want you to blame yourself.”

“But Professor,” Surlee cut her off, tears welling in his eyes, “what else am I supposed to do? It’s my fault, it’s my fault that he’s–”

Without thinking, Purrview turned him around and brought him into a hug. Not too tight, but surely a lot more close than the rest of Loony Labs would care for. Surlee’s tears caught in his throat, choking up, as he let himself fall loose on Purrview’s shoulder. They stood like that for a short while, Purrview gently rubbing circles into his back with the flat of her palm. At some point, Surlee had brought up his arms to weakly hold around her. 

Quietly, Purrview voiced her thoughts. “This is familiar,” she chuckled, not caring to make the obvious feline pun, “’exactly how I held Doctor Fissionton the other evening.”

Surlee pulled back from her, hands tentatively resting as fists on her chest. “What?” he blurted, confused.

“The other evening,” she reiterated, “Doctor Fissionton isn’t, wasn’t, one to cry that much. But, oh… he felt so awful that he couldn’t tell you he had to leave. He said that he knew you wouldn’t continue with this–” she lifted a hand to gesture to the Silly Meter, “–if he did. He… knew you would be distraught.”

“I…" Surlee murmured, trying to process this in his head. ”Was he angry with me? Actually,“ he shook his head, ”don’t tell me, I couldn’t bear if he was–“

“No,” she said, simply. “Never. He admired you to the very end, Doctor. He wanted to be like you, to work with you. You… gave him all he could ever ask for.”

Surlee stared, and then looked at the ground. He lifted a hand up to wipe away the tears that were starting to dry at the corners of his eyes, prompting Purrview to reach forward and take his hands in her own. She held them close, wrapping her fingers around the backs of his hands, thumb resting on his palms. Surlee tensed up - something Purrview was realizing was normal for him - before slowly curling his own fingers around hers. Purrview smiled at him, offering an anchor in the raging sea Surlee found himself in. Breathing in, he smiled at her in return. A genuine smile, one that was so very rare to see on the Doctor. When he opened his mouth to speak, the corners crinkled up against his eyes. Purrview felt an immeasurable fondness, for the Scientoon with the worst track record for social affairs, who had bared himself out on a table for Purrview to see, who hadn’t run away from her reassurances. There was absolutely no reason for her, or anyone, to feel scorn for someone who cared about Toontown more than any of them, combined.

“Thank you,” he said quietly, but firmly. “Sincerely, thank you.”

She nodded, eyes closing in a wide smile. “You saved Toontown, Doctor. Now it’s our turn to save you.”

Surlee laughed, a wonderfully rich laugh that made Purrview feel warm and amiable inside. “We still have a long way to go, Professor.”

He was right, Purrview thought. But at least now they were working with Doctor Gearloose, not at odds with him.

✦


End file.
